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End of the road for illegal bushmeat trade in East Africa: Establishing transboundary surveillance by high resolution melting analysis of vertebrate molecular barcodes

Objective

Illegal bushmeat trade is a global impediment to biodiversity conservation and public health. In Kenya and Tanzania, bushmeat trade has escalated to unsustainable levels, presenting a major threat to East African wildlife populations. Bushmeat trade and consumption expose humans and livestock to diseases such as Ebola and retroviruses, and bushmeat hunters risk contracting diseases from ticks and tsetse flies. Prosecution of bushmeat trade perpetrators in East Africa requires forensic evidence based on cytochrome oxidase I (COI) DNA-barcode sequencing, which is costly and time-consuming. There is a need for rapid, cost-effective forensic tools to screen for wildlife DNA in meat samples to support surveillance of bushmeat trade and improve law enforcement against perpetrators. Effective prosecution against illegal bushmeat trade in Kenya and Tanzania is hampered by lack of cheap scientific methods and trained personnel to undertake high-throughput screening of suspect samples. The proposed research will develop cost-effective high resolution melting analysis (HRMA)-based bushmeat identification and build the capacity for its implementation by wildlife agencies in Kenya and Tanzania. The protocols will enhance transboundary surveillance systems by accelerating identification of wildlife barcodes in samples, which can then be sequenced to provide forensic proof for prosecution. Adoption of this method by the wildlife agencies will generate crucial data on the extent of illegal bushmeat trade in the region, thereby providing a basis for review and harmonization of national and cross-border policies, laws and penalties against illegal bushmeat trade

Investigators
Lillian Wambua; Jandouwe Villinger; Scott Miller
Institution
International Center For Insect Physiology and Ecology
Start date
2015
End date
2020
Project number
4-192
Categories